Category: Notes and Comment Blog

  • A modest proposal

    Trump urges throwing out the Constitution.

    Trump on Saturday morning raged on his anti-Twitter app Truth Social about non-existent “fraud and deception” in the November 8th midterm elections – and he proposed scrapping the United States Constitution as a means to reinstall himself into the presidency.

    Did he ask nicely?

    “So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump “truthed.”

    Well he is an expert in constitutional law so…

    https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1599095239016296450

  • Escalated

    Investigation ratchets up:

    The Charity Commission has escalated its investigations into Mermaids, the regulatory body announced on Friday, responding to “newly identified issues” about the governance and management of the transgender children’s charity.

    Which being interpreted means: “This is worse than we thought.”

    The commission will investigate whether there is “serious systemic failing” in Mermaids’ governance and management. The trustees have cooperated fully, but the regulator said their response had “not provided the necessary reassurance or satisfied the commission at this stage”.

    But their response identifies as the necessary reassurance.

    Investigators will assess whether the charity’s governance is appropriate in relation to the activities it carries out, which involve vulnerable children and young people.

    Which involve vulnerable children and young people set on a lifelong path of medical dependency at a minimum.

    Mermaids said in a statement that it had separately commissioned an independent external report earlier this year “to carry out a frank and honest appraisal of our internal culture and how we measure up in terms of equity, diversity and inclusion”. 

    But those aren’t the issue. There’s too much inclusion. Children are better off being excluded by Mermaids.

    “We know we must do better and we are absolutely committed to doing so, and will be implementing the report’s recommendations as a priority. The charity has an unwavering commitment to safeguarding, which is, and always will be, our top priority.”

    No it isn’t.

  • Devastating to see

    It’s all so maddeningly circular.

    How can you be an activist to end violence against women and girls and at the same time insist that men who call themselves women are not men? How can you be an activist to end violence against women and girls if you don’t know which people are women and girls? How can you be an activist to end violence against women and girls if you think some men are women? How do you even know where to begin? Or who needs your activism?

    Also I think that bullshit about women’s organizations fearing they’ll be sued by feminists is just that: bullshit.

  • Total capture

    Sigh. The rot is everywhere.

    Citizens Advice is facing a backlash from staff for an “ideological instruction” to wear gender pronoun badges.

    …

    Dame Clare Moriarty, its £170,000-a-year chief executive, told all staff last month that pronouns are “an important way of affirming their gender identity” and “we shouldn’t assume someone’s gender based on their appearance”.

    No they’re not and of course we should.

    Her internal memo on Citizens Advice’s intranet, seen by The Telegraph, added: “You can help to normalise sharing pronouns by sharing yours. We’ve created some button badges with different pronouns that can be fastened to a lanyard or your clothing.”

    But we don’t want to “normalise sharing pronouns.” Sharing pronouns is utterly moronic and also bad.

    The charity has introduced the badges in national offices and via suppliers for regional teams, while its IT team has drawn up instructions on adding pronouns to email signatures.

    …

    The four-page guide says that “the pronouns used to refer to you are an extension of your name” and getting someone’s pronouns wrong is “misgendering”, meaning staff must “thank them for correcting you and let them know it won’t happen again”.

    How do adult people allow themselves to get this stupid????

    Staff are told to consult Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence if they want more coaching.

    A Citizens Advice benefits adviser, who received the memo, told The Telegraph: “I know many who are deeply unhappy with this kind of ideological instruction, especially at a time of economic crisis for our clients, which is what ought to be the priority for Citizens Advice.”

    “Never mind about your heating bill, I want to talk to you about our Lord and Savior my pronouns.”

    In another memo this year, the charity explained to staff on why it is a “trans-inclusive service”, saying it is “particularly important to be explicit” about this because of prejudice and harm faced by trans and non-binary communities.

    What harm. Tell us about the harm. Be specific and concrete. What harm???

    It said that being trans-inclusive means that “as an organisation, we recognise that trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary people are non-binary; we demonstrate this in the way we interact with colleagues and with clients”.

    They can’t “recognise” that because it’s not true. You can’t “recognize” that giraffes are salmon, because it isn’t true. You can’t “recognize” that men are women, because it isn’t true.

    Ms Moriarty said in response to the criticism: “Speaking up for people who face intense disadvantage is part of our charitable purpose. We want to create a service where everyone is comfortable coming to us for help, and a workplace where everyone belongs.”

    But they don’t. They want to create a service where many people will feel acutely uncomfortable going to them for help, and a workplace where people who know the difference between women and men don’t belong.

    She said personal opinions are recognised, adding: “We encourage respectful dialogue and ask all staff to be mindful about discussions that affect some people more directly, and more personally, than others.”

    Except women. They just have to deal with it.

  • Basic rights

    Teamster honcho Sean O’Brien:

  • Scab

    When in doubt, do it to the workers.

    President Joe Biden signed legislation Friday to block a national U.S. railroad strike that could have devastated the American economy.

    That is, Biden broke a strike for paid sick leave. Railroad workers have to go on working despite not having paid sick leave, while Musk and Bezos count their billions.

    The U.S. Senate voted 80 to 15 on Thursday to impose a tentative contract deal reached in September on a dozen unions representing 115,000 workers, who could have gone on strike on Dec. 9. But the Senate failed to approve a measure that would have provided paid sick days to railroad workers.

    Listen, if you want paid sick leave, you should be born to rich people and go to Harvard. If you fail to do that, well, fuck you. Now get back to work.

    Railroads have slashed labor and other costs to bolster profits in recent years, and have been fiercely opposed to adding paid sick time that would require them to hire more staff.

    Gotta make the rich richer and the poor poorer. It’s the American way.

    Teamsters President Sean O’Brien harshly criticized the Senate vote on sick leave. “Rail carriers make record profits. Rail workers get zero paid sick days. Is this OK? Paid sick leave is a basic human right. This system is failing,” O’Brien wrote on Twitter.

    He’s not wrong.

  • The health and safety of women and girls

    I saw this tweet and tracked down the particulars.

    First, the news release:

    Image

    Please send us your recommendations on how to deal with the mistreatment of women and girls in sport in Canada.

    Second, the reply to Coach Blade:

    Image

    Now, I haven’t read Coach Blade’s brief but I’ve been following her with great interest for a long time so I think I have a pretty educated guess about what she said. And the Standing Committee on the Status of Women said thanks but we threw it out, bye.

  • Limits

    So even Elon Musk has a limit.

    Elon Musk, Twitter’s chief executive, said late Thursday that Kanye West would be suspended from Twitter after the rapper and fashion designer tweeted an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. Mr. Musk said the post violated the social media outlet’s rule against the incitement of violence.

    …

    The indefinite Twitter suspension happened on the same day that [West] had appeared on a podcast hosted by the Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones, during which he told Mr. Jones, “I like Hitler.”

    Speaking of Alex Jones, he’s just declared bankruptcy. I’m wondering if he’ll be able to go right on “hosting” Infowars while not paying the victims of his sadism what the court ruled he owes them.

    Before his suspension, [West] had also tweeted an unflattering photograph of Mr. Musk being hosed down on a yacht.

    “This is fine,” Mr. Musk tweeted in response to the image. “This is not,” he wrote in regard to the swastika post, confirming [West’s] suspension.

    Speaking of names, I knew one of West’s children was named North, haw haw haw, but I didn’t know there were four and all four have joke names. The other three are Psalm, Chicago, and Saint. What a horrible thing to do to your own kids.

  • Partial coverage

    Pink News on the investigation into Mermaids:

    The Charity Commission has confirmed it has opened a statutory inquiry into trans children’s charity Mermaids after safeguarding allegations were raised.

    A regulatory compliance case was opened in September of this year, which has now been formalised.

    This began after several articles were published in right-wing publications, which portrayed Mermaids as posing danger to children.

    Geddit????? There are no safeguarding concerns really, it’s all just right-wing publicationing.

    The inquiry will focus on three areas of Mermaids, its work and how the charity is run. This includes investigating potential misconduct or mismanagement, whether the trustees have fulfilled their duties under charity law and into the administration, governance and management of the charity.

    Blah blah blah but really it’s the fault of the LGB Alliance.

    Mermaids came under increased scrutiny after its challenge to the charitable status of anti-trans lobby group LGB Alliance went to court.

    And it lost the case.

    Mermaids has argued in its case that LGB Alliance does not comply with two key criteria for charitable status under the Charities Act 2011 – that an organisation’s objectives “give rise to tangible, legally recognised benefits that outweigh any associated harms”, and that they “benefit the public or a sufficient section of the public”.

    Many LGBTQ+ people were horrified when, in the hours following the November shooting in Colorado Springs Club Q – where a trans woman was among the victims – LGB Alliance responded to the tragedy saying it stood in solidarity “with LGB people”.

    That’s the last paragraph of their coverage of the investigation into Mermaids. Impressive stuff.

  • On another legal front

    Trump is running out of road.

    In another big victory for the Justice Department Thursday, days after it won convictions of far-right Oath Keepers insurrectionists, an appeals court halted a third-party review of material taken by the FBI from Trump’s Florida resort…

    In another blow to the ex-president on Thursday, a federal judge ordered former Trump White House lawyers to give additional grand jury testimony after dismissing Trump’s claims rooted in attorney client or executive privilege…

    On another legal front threatening Trump, his former short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn became the latest acolyte of his to be ordered to testify before an Atlanta grand jury. This investigation is specifically looking into Trump’s 2020 effort to reverse his loss in the swing state.

    Wallop wallop wallop. The servants are standing by with mops.

    The Justice Department’s run of major victories is finally calling into question one of Trump’s lifelong strategies to avoid accountability – the use of the courts to delay or jam up cases against him in endless litigation.

    It probably would have gone on working for him if he hadn’t decided to expand his operations to the White House.

    And the rulings by judges, in some cases Republican appointees, are also sending a message that Trump’s massive and often risible claims of executive and attorney client privilege are an unreliable shield against investigation. Trump’s penchant for appealing all the way to the Supreme Court – and the conservative majority that he built – does not seem to be working so far either, after the high court declined to intervene on his behalf in several key cases in recent weeks.

    Risible and penchant – they’re bringing out the words Trump doesn’t know.

  • Newly identified issues

    Mermaids inquiry ratchets up.

    The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into the transgender charity Mermaids after identifying concerns about its management. The regulator said the inquiry — its most serious form of investigation — was triggered by “newly identified issues” around the youth charity’s “governance and management”.

    It had already announced a compliance case into Mermaids following safeguarding concerns, but a statutory inquiry marks a significant ramping up of its examination of the charity. It will try to establish if there was any mismanagement or misconduct by trustees.

    The commission said today that Mermaids’ response to the initial compliance case “has not provided the necessary reassurance or satisfied the commission at this stage”.

    Tick tick tick.

  • What did the GLP want?

    A bit of frivolity – a barrister explains why The Good Law Project is so bad and stupid, with that huge smug headshot of the kimono guy for extra laughs.

    What happened? Well, there was a two day hearing involving a King’s Counsel and three other barristers for the GLP, and another King’s Counsel and two more barristers for the government. That is an expensive two days. 

    What did the GLP want? Well, they weren’t actually clear initially, so we’ll come back to that later. But it was all to do with the issue of ministers using private emails and private WhatsApp or other messaging services for government business. The GLP were determined to stop that. They failed.

    …

    The argument used by the GLP in this case was confused. And it’s right to note that the judges were extremely angry that the case had been brought at all. Now, because I know judges, their anger is obvious to me, I hope it’s obvious to all. Here it is: 

    ‘The fact that a claimant is unable or unwilling to particularise the relief that they seek, may be an indication that the claim should not be pursued.’ 

    Heh heh heh. Cold sarcasm in judges=extreme anger. Fair enough.

    This can be translated as, ‘the fact that you can’t even say what you want us to do about this thing you are pretending is really important is a good indication it isn’t important and you should not have wasted our time’. 

    Which can be translated as ‘You can’t even say what you want us to do you hopeless preening goons so why the FUCK are you wasting our time and everyone’s money?”

  • Per curiam sez

    Some commentary on the Special Master ruling:

    https://twitter.com/JessBravin/status/1598472440426156032
    https://twitter.com/MariaSohn1/status/1598471620296937473

    There are lots more like these. Fun reading for a change.

  • Fireworks at Mar-a-Lago

    Appeals court strikes down special master in Trump Mar-a-Lago documents case

    A federal appeals court panel on Thursday halted an outside review of thousands of documents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence, ruling that a lower-court judge was wrong to appoint an expert to decide whether any of the material should be shielded from criminal investigators.

    …

    Trump sought the outside arbiter, known as a special master, after the FBI executed a court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago, his home and private club, on Aug. 8, retrieving more than 13,000 documents related to Trump’s time in the White House. About 100 of the documents were classified, and some contained extremely sensitive government secrets, according to court records.

    U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon of Florida agreed to appoint Judge Raymond J. Dearie of Brooklyn as special master to review the documents, rejecting the Justice Department’s argument that presidents do not retain executive privileges after leaving office.

    Who ya gonna believe, the Justice Department or an underqualified judge appointed by a criminal lunatic?

    H/t Screechy Monkey

  • Guest post: Packs of women hunting nebbishy ideologues with blue hair

    Originally a comment by Papito on Call the expert.

    Every once in a while one of these misogynist twerps spurts out a rant that lays out all the hatred they normally try to keep hidden.

    Not only does young master Baron insist that all women must agree with him on the definition of feminism, but he insists that if they don’t, then they are imposing the patriarchy. Not him, the man who is telling women what they are allowed to think, but them, women who refuse to listen to a man. That, per Aidan, is the true patriarchy.

    This argument reminds me of the schoolyard taunt “I’m rubber, you’re glue! Words bounce off me and stick to you!” No, the man telling woman what to think isn’t representing the patriarchy; he’s rubbery liberation, if only those damn women would listen. Boioioing!

    The silly little fellow can’t even keep his words straight. First he claims British feminism excludes a kind of women (and, in doing so, somehow slavery something…), but then his obvious distaste for the W word takes over, and it’s all “trans people” from there on out. Of course, that slavey, husbandy old British feminism is perfectly happy to include the subset of trans people which are women. It’s just the men who are trans people who aren’t included as women. But Baron can hardly bring himself to say “women” except as a sort of curse word. Oh, holy trans people, put upon by those horrible, aggressive, perpetrating… women.

    Is this young fellow so unfamiliar with being outside that he imagines great packs of aggressive, perpetrating women roami up and down the streets looking for nebbishy ideologues with blue hair? Is this what his (slavey, husbandy) mommy told him would happen if he goes outside? And which people are these hardcore feminist street thugs beating up, the trans people who are women or the trans people who are men? Where is this immense amount of physical assault Aidan thinks women are committing? Video after video, event after event, arrest after arrest has trans-identifying men committing physical assault against women. Day after day. Where is any demonstration of it happening in the other direction? He’s a paramedic; do you think his ambulance is picking up scores of trans people who have been physically assaulted by women?

    I suspect it’s simply that Baron believes that not only can he insist women agree that they’re not feminists, he is, and he’s not the patriarchy, they are, but that he’s not of the violent cohort, they are. Rubber, glue, QED.

    The stubborn facts about violence include that men commit violence at much greater rates than women do. And that doesn’t change at all when these men become trans people. Still men, still violent at higher rates, still on average bigger and stronger than women. And no, those facts don’t give a damn about Aidan Baron’s feelings.

    Heaven help the woman who gets picked up in Aidan Baron’s ambulance.

  • Call the expert

    Man puts himself in charge of feminism.

    https://twitter.com/Aidan_Baron/status/1597991342885347329
    https://twitter.com/Aidan_Baron/status/1597987871058599938

  • Dissing the Nazis

    Sure, what’s not to like?

    KANYE WEST PRAISED Adolf Hitler during a Thursday interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. 

    “Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” Ye said. “Also Hitler was born Christian.”

    Especially Hitler. Plus he was born Christian, so obviously good & bringing something of value to the table.

    “I see good things about Hitler also” Ye said. “I love everyone. Jewish people are not going to tell me you can love us, and you can love what we’re doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we’re pushing with the pornography. But this guy that invented highways, invented the very microphone that I use as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that.”

    Hitler didn’t invent jack shit. He got highways built so that he could speed up the Anschluss.

    “We got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time,” Ye said after the show returned from break.

    Yeah no we don’t.

  • Rejecting concerns

    Of course she does.

    Sturgeon rejects UN concerns about reform of Scotland’s gender law

    She rejects women’s concerns, too. Men who claim to be women are the only people who matter.

    Nicola Sturgeon has described the concerns of a UN special rapporteur about plans to reform how people change their legal sex in Scotland as “not well founded”.

    During a robust session of first minister’s questions, Sturgeon also said Shona Robison, the minister in charge of the controversial gender recognition reform bill, would meet the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, next week.

    The Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, repeatedly challenged Sturgeon to delay the bill – which was the subject of the Scottish National party’s biggest ever backbench revolt last month – after a highly critical letter from Alsalem to the UK government.

    In it she raised concerns that the reforms “would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a gender certificate and the rights that are associated with it”.

    But Sturgeon is entirely confident that men who want to abuse women are far too honorable and decent to exploit trans idenninies in pursuit of their hobby.

    Sturgeon said the bill had gone through lengthy public consultation and was undergoing intense parliamentary scrutiny. “It’s really important that we remember all of us see protecting women and girls as a priority, but I hope all of us also see protecting the rights of trans people as important too,” she said.

    But what rights? It’s not a “right” for men to go into spaces reserved for women.

  • Daisies & stars & smirks

    Sackbut pointed out this cloying image:

    May be an image of one or more people and text that says 'What if parenting became less about telling our children who they should be and more about asking them again and again forever who they already are? Then, when they tell us, we would celebrate instead of concede. It's not: love you no matter which of my expectations you meet or don't meet. It's: My only expectation is that you become yourself. The more leeply I know you, the more beautiful you become to me. -GLENNON DOYLE @WILDPEACEFORPARENTS'

    Naaaaaaaaah.

    That’s just the old self-esteem movement updated for even more solipsistic times.

    No, parents shouldn’t treat their children like gods. No, parents shouldn’t be constantly wooing their children like lovers. No, parents shouldn’t be training their children to think they’re miraculous and supernatural. Unconditional love, yes; an infinite stream of flattery, no.

    And this “become yourself” shit needs to die. As I keep saying to the point of monotony, the cult of the self needs to die. Encourage children to have a spine, think critically, resist peer pressure when necessary, all that, but obsess over a special unique magical Self, no.

  • Not immediately

    With only four or five weeks to do anything with them, the House Dems finally have Trump’s tax returns.

    Sort of.

    The supreme court ordered the release of six years of returns last Tuesday, rejecting Trump’s plea to stop the treasury from acting.

    On Wednesday, the release of the tax returns was first reported by CNN. According to the network, which cited an unnamed aide to the Democratic committee chair, Richard Neal, Democrats on the panel were due to be briefed on Thursday on the “legal ramifications on section of the tax law that … Neal used to request Trump’s tax returns” but would not immediately see the returns.

    Well let’s do all this as slowly as possible so that nothing will happen before the Republicans take over the House.

    It had long been customary, though not required, for major party candidates to release their returns. But Trump was the first major-party presidential candidate in four decades not to release his tax returns, as he sought to keep secret the details of his wealth and the activities of his real estate company, the Trump Organization.

    Which is one of many reasons it’s not a cute or fun idea to make a corrupt real estate profiteer a head of state. Crooks have the wrong kinds of motivation for the job.